Customer Reviews

Flyer

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the CD that started it all for me - it's not lonely any more, having been joined by 8 other Nanci Griffith CDs since I bought it. It is a remarkable album - her songs are wonderful, the harmonies beautiful, the lyrics stories in themselves. And despite her distinctive voice and sound, there is real variety, from the slower melodies to more the 'pop'-ier sounding ones. And her duet with Adam Duritz "Going Back To Georgia" is a real high point on the CD, as their voices simply mix magically.

I bought the CD for one song, and ended up loving the whole thing so much that I lent it out to as many friends as I could, many of whom ended up buying it. If only I could convince everyone to do so! Nanci Griffith is a powerful songwriter, singer and, to top it off, story teller. I've found it to be the same with her other albums, but I think that this remains her best because it showcases her range and abilities more than some of the others (all of which are great, too, mind you). Flyer definitely comes with my highest recommendation.

No one ever accused Nanci Griffith of being secretive, private, but when it comes down to it, we don't know much about her personal life. That is, not until "Flyer." Each song is like a page from her diary, and if you're a Nanci fan at all, that makes this a must-have.

So it hits and misses, musically, but it does it with the awkward grace of Nanci herself, with this kind of unabashed, blurty admission of truth, maybe not always clean and perfectly wrought...but honest.

Which makes the inclusion of the Julie Gold song, "Southbound Train," very strange on a cd FULL of Nanci originals, but I guess it spoke to her, and if you look at the lyrics you can see why, see how it tells a little more the story of our flyer Nanci.

"Goodnight to a Mother's Dream" might be the saddest song she's ever written, and it's certainly done more for me than any other, as far as shedding light on Nanci herself. Little girl raised to be strong, to be independent, to take care of herself and think for herself -- and what does it get her? "I've got love enough for two, but it's just me and this old moon." And I just want to reach out and shake her for this, for all this earnestness, this beautiful woman's belief somehow that she's "plain as plain can be" and tell her just how grateful I am for all she's given me. "I am the heart not taken," she says, "the one thought not worth breaking. I am the late-blooming rose with only a mother's dream to hold." Wonderful, heartbreaking stuff. And man, I love Nanci for it, and I feel a whole lot closer to her from having heard this song, this album.

"Anything You Need But Me" is the flipside of that story, but another one I can identify with: "you sent me out on a limb, brought me home, sent me back again. Out on that limb one too many times, you shoulda known I'd learn to fly."

She gives us a lot of long-distance love and love lost on this album, "Flyer," "Say It Isn't So," "Talk to Me While I'm Listening.," "Fragile," and, perhaps best in "Nobody's Angel": "I'm the one who would understand, who listens with pen in hand, everyone's shoulder till it's me who falls down. I'm nobody's angel now."

She remembers John (cf. "There's a Light Beyond These Woods...") in "On Grafton Street" and "Always Will," and she's even got a love song to her long-time accompanist and best friend James Hooker in "Don't Forget About Me."

And she leaves us with a rousing note of hope, she reminds us she's strong, with the fabulous "This Heart." "This heart was stranded in the winter, was stuck out in a blizzard in its summer clothes, this heart knows when the love comes and when it goes."

So get "Flyer," if you love Nanci, if you'd like to love Nanci, or even if you'd just like to get to know her a little better.

And Nanci, if you're out there, I've always got my porch light on.

This is the first Nanci Griffith album I ever heard, and it remains one of my favorites, and is the one I recommend to people who are just discovering her incredible talents. I used to listen to it every Saturday morning while working as backup bookkeeper at my local Borders---it was in the pile of tapes owned by the office manager. Everything about it grabbed me fast: her lovely voice, the poetry of the songwriting, the mix of sorrow and sass. It felt from the beginning as if I knew this woman, as if she were writing and singing with me in mind...

I think my favorite song on this album is "Grafton Street," a track on which the Chieftains perform backup duties. Over an intriguing percussive beat, the harp-strings shimmer, and then Griffith begins to sing a plaintive melody line, telling a simple memory-story in simple, clear language, a story which goes straight to my heart, an arrow accurately shot. And all Griffith's shots are accurate.

The ordinariness of her subject matter is deceptive. In focusing on the commonplace (a train trip, a card game, a city snowstorm), she effortlessly connects us to all the big universal truths (love, loss, struggle, solitude) and sings them so beautifully. You'll want to buy every single Nanci Griffith CD, but start with this one.

I discovered Nanci Griffith whilst tuning into BBC Radio 2 one morning, on came this song called TIME OF INCONVENIENCE which is on this CD - great lyrics, great guitar riffing, great harmonies, then I went out and got hold of the CD. I've since got hold of many more and recently took my wife to see her live in Bristol on April 13th, truly a fine show! I am now hooked. Nanci is an inspirational person and has one of the finest and most unique voices in music you will hear. This LP begins with FLYER, a tale like many of her songs of lost loves and brief encounters during travels, which strikes a chord and themes the album - another good example is SOUTHBOUND TRAIN, a truly moving ballad with a piano accompaniment that brings a tear to my eye each time I hear it. More uptempo, rather rockier numbers include the aforementioned TIME OF INCONVENIENCE and ANYTHING YOU NEED BUT ME - I will say they remind me of REM purely because Peter Buck guests on guitar on this CD. You also have Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton from U2 and Marc Knopfler of DIRE STRAITS on DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME, one of the stand out tracks - so basically this will appeal to a wider audience than folk purists. You also get THE CHIEFTANS accompanying Nanci in ON GRAFTON STREET, inspired by her travels to Dublin - and the last track, THIS HEART you could be forgiven for thinking it is a Buddy Holly cover with its rockabilly riffing - Crickets member Sonny Curtis guests here on guitar as well! So all in all this is an album that no Nanci fan should be without. If you're new to her music, this is a great place to begin, then I would recommend BLUE ROSES FROM THE MOONS, LONE STAR STATE OF MIND and also her OTHER VOICES cover version albums which show the versatilty of her fine vocal talent as good starting points. Then as I am, get hold of the rest!

This one is ageing well, like a fine wine. It's as good an album as you'll find in the Nanci discography. Nanci is writing from the heart here, and it makes for something different than the more obviously "folk" albums she is well known for. There are no stories about strange people. This is more personal stuff, more emotional stuff than we're used to. At times it is enthralling and perfect, like in "Talk to Me When I'm Listening" which has some inexplicably beautiful lines. But it's not all deeply reflective. The bouncy, brilliantly catchy "Going Back to Georgia" (duet with Adam Duritz from Counting Crows) demonstrates this. It's one of my favourite ever Nanci tracks. Almost all the tracks are excellent, inventive, intelligent, beautifully arranged and performed. I'm holding back on the fifth star for two reasons: "Time of Inconvenience" is not to my taste. I don't think it comes up to the high standards of the other Nanci originals. And "Southbound Train" is a Julie Gold song and therefore to me, a bit irritating. Leave those two out and it's an easy five stars.

Nanci Griffith records aren't played that much on the radio, and that's a real shame. But then I guess those of us that know her music intimately get to feel like members of some sort of exclusive club, priveleged to experience music that is uplifting instrumentally, lyrically, and melodically. I'd say Flyer was Nanci at her best, but that would do a disservice to the other amazing records in her musical history. All her stuff is amazing. Listening to Flyer will put you in the drivers seat of an old convertible, hair blowing in the wind, as you seem to drive into the sunset. That's how good it feels. If you've ever driven through the old, desolate highways of Texas on a warm summer evening, that someone special by your side, or only in your mind, you already know what it feels like to listen to this amazing music. If you've never driven through Texas, or never heard this cd, you must do both, now!

I'll start by saying that I have been listening to Nanci Griffith for my entire life.*(15 years)* That's because she is one of my mother's favorite artists, so I'm quite familier with her work. But out of of all her albums, Flyer is totally my favorite. I think that it's somewhat diffrent from her other albums, with more flow, and less, as I call it, twang. You know, that country sound. I like that.


It's hard to name my favorite song. Most likely Southbound Train, or Goodnight to Mother's Dream.

Southbound Train, to me, is everything lonely and sad whenever I hear it. The kind of sound that makes my heart twist around in this weird way, just listening to that piano and her voice.


I'm sitting on a southbound train
Staring at the sky
I'm thinking of my childhood
And I'm trying not to cry
While a stranger sleeps against me
And it feels like I'm his wife
Towns and cities flutter past
Like the pages of my life


And I love Goodnight to Mother's Dream, even though I'm not sure why. In a way, it just connects with me, the lyrics and music. And the chorus is beautiful.


And the sailors on the water
...They all want the captain's daughter
They want her beauty and her youth
To grace their bow out on the sea
Me, I'm getting older and I'm plain
As plain can be
Got a bank full of mother's dreams
Maybe mother just didn't see
That love would be the only thing
Her daughter would ever need


The rest of the album is just as perfect. "Always will," "Talk to Me While I'm Listening", "Fragile", And "On Grafton Street" are particularly amazing. Each of her songs are are like individual storys, and they all connect to me in a way that I can't really describe. Let's just say they touch you, and can stay with you long after you hear them. All of her music has always been deep and beautiful, but this album truly shines. In my opinion it's the best of her work, and most defenently my favorite.


I would like to say more, do a page on every song, maybe, but I won't. But I'll say this: Rock on, Nanci.

If you want a fantastic Nanci album - this is THE one in terms of original songs. It ranks up with 'Last of the True Believers' as the ALL TIME GREATEST Nanci Griffith album. There is not a bad song on the whole album - and the visiting musicians really seem to bring out the best in Nanci. 'These days in an Open Book' and 'Inconvenient Time' and 'Going Back to Georgia' are worth the price of the CD alone...and there are 10 more pearls just like these. You'll play this one over and over if you buy it...and wish other artists would make albums this good!!!

When I first heard this recording my heart melted. What drew me into "Flyer" was Nanci's voice, perhaps the finest performance of her career. Gone is the sometimes irritating girlyness, which dominated so much of her previous recorded output, to be replaced by a new found sophistication which is both elegant and deeply vulnerable. Her vocal delivery, which may not "shimmer" in quite the same way as say, Emmylou Harris, manages to reach points of transcendence before crashing back down to earth, the effect is heartbraking, delicate, and beautiful.

The songs match the voice perfectly, these are Nanci's most personal works to date. Themes of loneliness and loss run right through this Album, perhaps most touchingly on the track "These days are an open book", in which Nanci reflects; "These days my life is an open book, missing pages I cannot seem to find". The inclusion of the Julie Gold song "Southbound Train" only adds extra depth to these sentiments, and Nanci makes it her own.

Despite the nature of the material, the songs are rarely self indulgent, nor overly sentimental, these are songs of a universal nature, the work of a true artist. Perhaps the only weak points are "Time of inconveniece", which tries too hard to capture the "post modern condition" in its social commentry, and "Going back to Georgia" which to many ears will confirm all that is corny and trite in Country Music, which is a pity because this Album generally transcends genre, drawing in infuences from Folk (both American and Irish), Rock, and Country.

Seven years on, this Album still stands out in its beauty and integrity. Listen to it, and fall in love.

This is absolutely a desert Island disc - It is right up there with One Fair Summer Evening. Nanci fan or not, buy this disc - you will not be disappointed. If you haven't heard a lot of her music, this is a great place to start. Standouts - Southbound Train, Don't Forget About Me, Going Back to Georgia, Talk to Me While I'm Listening, These Days in an Open Book....they're all great! This record is a truly extraordinary work!